Fossil Friday: Ancient Bats

Fossil Friday: Ancient Bats

This week’s Fossil Friday is a shout out to our Mexican Free-tail bats who will be returning soon. Icaronycteris, which lived about 50 million years ago, is one of the earliest bats. In some ways it was very similar to modern bats, using echolocation to hunt insects and hanging upside down. But, it was also very different, lacking the stretched skin between the feet and tail as well the specialised teeth of modern bats.